The
Florida women’s tennis team won another hard-fought match in the NCAA
Championship and defeated Miami, 4-1, in the quarterfinals on Sunday at Taube
Tennis Stadium on the campus of Stanford University.

The
second-seeded Gators (29-1) won the doubles point and then received singles
victories from Olivia Janowicz (Palm Bay, Fla.), Allie Will (Boca
Raton, Fla.) and Alex Cercone (Seminole, Fla.) to advance to Monday’s
semifinals where they play sixth-seeded UCLA (22-5) at 7 p.m. ET (4 p.m. PT).

This
marks the program’s 21st trip to the NCAA Semifinals in the last 25
years. Florida has reached the championship match 10 times.

“It
was tough, just like the NCAA Round of 16 match (UF defeated Clemson 4-1 in a
tight contest),” UF head coach Roland Thornqvist said. “We played well
in doubles today and had somewhat of a slow start in singles. This Miami team
has really improved since the last time we saw them in February. Their freshmen
have gotten a lot better. We have to give credit to our players again. They
really find a way and in this tournament it’s not necessarily always about
who’s playing the best, sometimes it’s about who competes the best. I thought
our players were outstanding again in that department.”

“Getting
to the semifinals is a great achievement, but we’re going to treat this like
any other match. We’ve done a good job of that all year long,” Thornqivst
continued.

With
Florida holding a 3-1 lead in the team scoring, the outcome was still very much
in doubt, as Lauren Embree (Marco Island, Fla.) lost the first set of
her match and went down 3-0 to start the second. Cercone and Joanna Mather
(Duluth, Ga.) lost their respective first sets and rallied to force a third,
but both were down a break midway in the final frame.

On
court five, Cercone trailed 5-3 in the third set before staging her comeback
against Danielle Mills. The Gator rookie held serve and then broke at love to
even the set at 5-all, before holding to a 6-5 lead. She earned one final break
and was mobbed by several of her teammates immediately after the final point
and her 2-6, 6-1, 7-5 victory clinched the dual match win for the Gators, who
won for the 19th consecutive time.

“I
tried so hard when I was down 5-3 to not let her get a match-point,” Cercone
shared. “That was my main focus throughout that whole game. I tried to stay
ahead the whole game. Once I won that game to make it 5-4, I just stuck with it
and knew I could pull it out.

“I’m
so excited about playing in the semifinals,” Cercone continued. “I started
getting pretty nervous there in the middle of the third set, but the nerves are
good because that means we want to win and we want to move on to the next
round. We’ve all worked so hard and it seems like it’s paid off.”

Mather
actually held a match point during Cercone’s final game, but Kayla Rizzolo
fought off the break point and the game went to duce, where it was abandoned
with Mather holding a 3-6, 6-3, 5-4 lead.

“Alex
and Joanna are such tough competitors,” Thornqvist said. “This team is so deep.
We don’t rely on the same players each match to have to win. You can see that
in both of the matches we’ve played at this site. As long as we don’t
scoreboard watch and try to predict who’s going to win, we’re tough to beat. I’m
very pleased because this Miami team is tough.”

Janowicz
was the first to post a singles victory in the quarterfinal bout, as she saw
her first singles action at the championship site and came through with a 6-4,
6-2 victory against Melissa Bolivar to win her 18th consecutive match
and give Florida a 2-0 lead.

Her
match was on-serve through the first nine games, before the Gator rookie got
the first break of the outing and claimed the opening set. She then jumped out
to a 3-0 lead in the second en route to the victory.

“Olivia
has been practicing unbelievably well,” Thornqvist praised. “She didn’t play at
the top of her game the first two rounds in Gainesville, but the week leading
up to this was the best she’s played all year. I’m not surprised she got off
the court quickly because she’s been very effective in practice.”

“I
was always up a game during our breaks. When it got to 4-all and I got down
40-15 on my serve it started to get really tight,” Janowicz shared. “But some
of our men’s team’s players came to watch and they cheered me on and helped me
through it. I got to 5-4 and then won it 6-4. In the second set I just didn’t
want to give her any room to breath. I just stayed on her and finished.

“I’m
so excited about advancing to the semifinals,” Janowicz continued. “I’m a
freshman and this is my first time with this experience. It’s all surreal to
me.”

The
seventh-seeded Hurricanes (21-7) trimmed their deficit to 2-1 with a win on
court three, but Will punched in her 14th consecutive singles win as
she provided an impressive 6-2, 6-1 victory against sixth-ranked Bianca
Eichkorn and gave Florida a 3-1 lead. Sunday’s win was Will’s 80th
career singles victory, as she improved to 80-8 all-time, including a 49-2 dual
match record, with a 23-1 mark this season.

“Allie
was outstanding today. She had big forehands and defended well when she had
to,” Thornqvist said. “One thing you see from her game now is that she can go
from defense to offense in almost one shot.”

“I
was lucky to get off the court as quickly as I did because I’ve played Bianca
Eichkorn a few times before and it’s always a really tough match. My forehand
was working and I was able to move the ball around the court,” Will shared.
“I’m so proud of all my teammates. Everyone competed so hard. Alex came back
from 5-3 and played with no fear. I’m just proud of my team I don’t know what
else to say.”

The
Gators got the match started with solid doubles play, as Embree and Sofie
Oyen (Leopoldsburg, Belgium) defeated Gabriela Mejia and Melissa Bolivar,
8-4, and improved to 7-0 as a tandem.

Florida
then turned to its number three duo of Caroline Hitimana (Waterloo,
Belgium) and Mather, who entered the match with a 15-2 record together,
including a 6-1 record this year, but had not played since November 6 at the
Gator Fall Classic.

The
pair didn’t show any signs of rust against Brittany Dubins and Danielle Mills,
as the Gators earned breaks in the fourth and eighth games and took a 7-2 lead
en route to the 8-5 clinching double-point victory. The win was Mather’s 150th
career combined singles and doubles victory, with 80 coming on the doubles
court.

“We’ve
been playing well at number three doubles and now we have the luxury of mixing
up the pairing and playing whoever is playing the best on that court,”
Thornqvist said. “That made a big difference today. Caroline’s big serves were
huge and was the difference. Our two team was solid. They made good decisions
and are very athletic.”